India's GM potato hoax - Providing proteins to the poor

"...the plan was presented at a conference in London by G. Padmanaban who as director of India's prestigious Indian Institute of Science had signed a secret deal with Monsanto which even his fellow scientists of the Institute knew nothing about.

Even though it is independent institutes in the Third World... which first exposed the Golden Rice hoax, G. Padmanaban deliberately distorted the debate and identified "Western environment groups" as "demonizing" the golden rice project. This is the biotech industry strategy - silence & suppress Third World voices for food sovereignity & biosafety, present GMO's as the solution to hunger, & present all centers [of resistance] as "rich, western, environmentalists"." (from the article below)

For more on how the biotech industry distorts and marginalises Third World opposition, see THE FAKE PARADE http://www.freezerbox.com/archive/article.asp?id=254

First it was the "Golden Rice Hoax" to sell genetically engineered foods as a solution to hunger and poverty and blindness due to Vit A deficiency. We showed that greens and fruits and vegetables that could be grown in every backyard provided hundreds of times more Vit A than "golden rice".

The flop of Golden Rice as a public relations gimmick of the biotech industry failed to salvage the faltering image of genetically engineered food as a miracle cure of hunger.

We are now being sold a "Protein Potato" hoax as part of anti-hunger plan formulated in collaboration with charities, scientists, government institutes and industry.

As reported in the New Scientist of Jan 2, 2003, the plan was presented at a conference in London by G. Padmanaban who as director of India's prestigious Indian Institute of Science had signed a secret deal with Monsanto which even his fellow scientists of the Institute knew nothing about.

Even though it is independent institutes in the Third World like our Research Foundation for Science Technology & Ecology which work on Biodiversity, Farmers Rights, & Food Security, which first exposed the Golden Rice hoax, G. Padmanaban deliberately distorted the debate and identified "Western environment groups" as "demonizing" the golden rice project. This is the biotech industry strategy - silence & suppress Third World voices for food sovereignity & biosafety, present GMO's as the solution to hunger, & present all centers as "rich, western, environmentalists".

The GM potato has been developed by Asis Datta of the Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi who had earlier tried to sell & patent the same genetic engineering technology by introducing amaranth genes into rice. Dr. Datta has also been on Department of Biotechnology committees which give grants and he is thus both the giver and receiver of biotechnology funds. The genetically engineered potato that is now being offered in this desperate attempt to offer GMO's as part of an anti-hunger strategy has genes from amaranth.

Amaranth is available in huge quantities in the Indian Himalaya. Navdanya, our organic movement, is increasing the use of amaranth products, such as ready to eat cereals, flour, baked goods - beyond the traditional use of amaranth as a fasting food.

Amaranth contains 14-7 gms per 100 gm of grain, compared to 6.8 gm/100gm in milled rice and 11 gm/100gm in wheat flour and 1.6 gm/100 gm in potato. However, inserting genetically engineering genes for proteins from amaranth into potatoes, and promoting potato as a staple for mid-day meals for children is a decision to not promote amaranth and pulses (the most important source of protein in the Indian diet).

When compared to bringing nutrition through grains like amaranth, genetically engineered potatoes will in fact create malnutrition because they will deny to vulnerable children the other nutrients available in grain amaranth and not available in potato. The table below gives the comparative nutrition from amaranth and potatoes.

Thus genetically engineered potato will in fact spread iron deficiency and calcium deficiency in children. A much smarter option is to spread the cultivation and use of amazing grains like amaranth. The ancient people of the Andes treated amaranth as sacred. In India it is called "Ramdana" or god's own grain. The root word "amara", in both Greek and Sanskrit means eternal or deathless.

Dr. Datta & Dr. Padmanaban's recipe of GM potato is one of pushing out the amaranth from cultivation & consumption, reducing it to a "mine" for protein genes, and spreading a monoculture of potato cultivation and consumption. This is a recipe for biodiversity erosion and hunger creation. In any case, amaranth is not the only source of protein in India's rich biodiversity and cuisine. Our "dals", pulses, legumes that are a staple with rice as dal-chawal and with wheat as dal-roti are very rich in protein.

The consumption of dals & pulses provides much higher levels of proteins than genetically engineered potatoes can. Pulses are also necessary for sustainable agriculture, since they are nitrogen fixing crops and provide an ecological alternative to chemical nitrogenous fertilizers.

Pulses have been made expensive by being made scarce through the spread of green revolution monocultures of wheat and rice. In Punjab alone, the area under pulses went down from 13.38 % to 3.48 % during 1966-67 to 1985-86. Traditional agriculture was based on mixtures of cereals & pulses. New initiatives like Navdanya are rejuvenating mixed cropping with pulses to increase both nutritional security and ecological security.

Genetically engineered potatoes are not the solution to the artificially created scarcity of pulses through monocultures & industrial agriculture. The protein solution for India's poor lies in rejuvenating our rich biodiversity and food culture. India is nutritionally better off without the pseudo solution to hunger offered by Datta & Padmanaban and the biotech lobby.